


A Con Gone Wrong

by pakunoduh



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Asra (mentioned) - Freeform, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 16:52:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13574841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pakunoduh/pseuds/pakunoduh
Summary: "How did you meet him?""Who?...Asra?""Mhm."Wally tells Julian how she became an apprentice. It's wild





	A Con Gone Wrong

“How did you meet him?”

The long black nails stopped their trek through auburn locks. Julian made a small groan at their ceasing and looked up to the small apprentice beneath him. Wally’s talons stilled on his head where it lay against her chest. Her kohl lined eyes lay fixed on the scratchy sheets just besides Julian’s knee where they laid in Mazelinka’s home. She’d slipped out of the palace for the day, the drovel of court hurting her eyes with how much she rolled them at the pompous officials around her.

“Who?” her voice vibrated against Julian’s cheek, the rising and falling of her breath lulling the man into comfort. “Asra?”

“Mhm.” Julian rubbed his face into her satin blouse before flicking his gaze back to her face.

“Oh.” She nodded nonchalantly into the distance, lavender blinking the gangly man into focus with a smile. The gold hoop on the center of her lip caught in the faint candlelight with her grin, the deep blue they were painted today complimenting her brown complexion.

“Well that’s an awfully long story.” Wally teased, her finger going back to smooth through his hair.

“I’m not going anywhere.” A smirked flashed across his face before it fell once more. “Are you?”

She regarded him impassively, a wide smile soon breaking across the magician’s face. “Not unless you’re coming with me.” Her arched brows waggled down at Julian, a strand of hair falling from her powder blue mohawk.

“Then tell me a story, Cadwallader.” Julian encouraged with a proper grin, his neck stretching to look at her.

“Okay, okay.” Wally maneuvered into the pillows further, “Get off me first, my toes are fucking cold.” They wiggled for emphasis.

He huffed a laugh and granted her request. Julian rolled off the small woman with a faint wobble, his long legs nearly falling off the bed with the motion. His large hand trailed down her thigh as he left her long enough for Wally to shove her feet under the cotton blanket covering the bed. He made sure to keep his palm over the light lavender slacks obscuring parts of her leg, Julian too aware of the large expanses of skin still left bare to his wandering eye.

“Alright, come here.” The apprentice waved the fugitive doctor closer once she was properly settled. Wally did nothing to hide the smirk that settled on her face from his staring, seemed to preen under it even.

Julian raised his eyebrows at Wally (definitely without a blush beginning to color his face) and followed suit, laying on his side and placing his head on her bare shoulder, “You wouldn’t be so cold if you wore more clothes.” He poked the wide cutout on her thigh, the tawny skin soft under his touch.

“You wear too many clothes!” Wally countered, sticking her tongue out. The pair piercings at the tip winked as they made their way back into her mouth, after which a wrinkled nose met him instead. “I can’t understand how you’ve lived in Vesuvia for ages and still think that 5 layers of clothes are necessary.”

“I only wear three.”

“Still too many. You look much better in none, dear.” Wally’s long fingernails dug into Julian’s hair once more and tugged at the strands for emphasis. A moan slipped from Julian’s lips before he could stop it.

“You’re-” Julian’s face turned upward with the pulling of Wally’s grip. His tongue flicked out over his dry lips, eyes glazing over momentarily. A flush painted most of his face before he swallowed and tried again, “you’re changing the subject.”

“Nope!” Wally grinned down and dark blue lipstick branded itself on his temple, “I’m just teasing you.” she spoke into his skin.

“Wally,” Julian had to fight the whine bubbling to the surface, “please don’t.”

“Fine,” she leaned away from him, smirk still firmly in place, “You’re no fun.”

A beat of silence.

“So you wanted to know how I met Asra?” she finally began, sounding like she’d forgotten his original question.

Julian nodded.

“Alright, so~” she drew out the ‘o’ for a few seconds, attention grabbed instead by the wax dripping down the candle. She stayed transfixed, the slow bead moving down to the wooden table beneath and stilling as it cooled. With a shake of her head, Wally realized she’d still been holding out the vowel and a blink later, her mouth closed.

“So I met him in the marketplace, or was it by the old plague wards? I don’t know, but either way it was in a back alley! I had my shitty little table set up, a bunch of rings on my hands to cover the green marks they left behind from the day before. Do you know how easy it is the make cheap ass rings look expensive? Even without magic! You just shine them up right and make sure the paint doesn’t flake in noticeable places and you’re good to go! Honestly, if you wanted me to spiff up your-”

“Wally.”

“What?”

“You’re getting off topic.”

“Oh fuck.” A flush crept over Cadwallader’s freckled cheeks, the subtle red dusting over her nose as a pout pursed her lips, “Where was I?”

“Literally at the beginning.”

“Shit.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, time to get serious. Just punch me if I derail again, okay?”

“I-”

“Thanks for agreeing! So, as I was saying, I met him in some random back alley at my divination stand. I had the usual shit up that you see at a fortune teller’s table, right? Like the cards and crystal ball and everything. Well this fucker just walked up and his clothes look travelled. Like exotic silks and embroidered shit and just seemed like he had money to burn, and who was I to deny him the pleasure of giving me money? So I called him over with my best smile and batted my eyes dramatically cause it’d worked on all the other bastards before him, and I was all like ‘for 4 gold pieces I’ll read your palm and tell you your dead girlfriend’s name’ or some shit and guess what? He bought it!”

Wally was using her hands at this point, back bent over Julian’s head where it had slid down to her hip as she gestured into the air, obviously enjoying her story as much as Julian enjoyed hearing it. “This poor sap came up to my booth and gave me his money and bought into my stupid, vague reading. It was all ‘she died tragically before her time’ and ‘you’ve gone to great lengths to preserve her memory, but fret not, she’ll always be close to you. Closer than you may think.’ and all that other mumbo jumbo that crackpots usually give you like shitty fortune cookies. Do you know what those are? My father use to get them all the time from his homeland, just these plain ass cookies that didn’t even have sugar- barely any vanilla!- and the outer edge had runes scrawled into it like a stamp just giving you something stupid like ‘your future is bright but only if you keep your gaze on the sun’. But like, which sun? And why would you do that anyway, you’ll lose your eyes if you look too long, even babies know that! What kind of dumbass-”

“Wally.”

She stopped, blinked, looked down at him.

“I told you to punch me.”

“Maybe next time.” The Doctor smiled at her fondly before waving a hand into the air, “Please, continue.”

Wally blew a raspberry at him. “I gave him his reading, took his money, and watched his smile with a ‘what the fuck’ expression. It was like he knew I was full of shit but humored me anyway. There wasn’t pity in his eyes, but it felt like it so it made me mad. I swindled 15 more coins from him by giving two 3 card spreads and a ball gaze. Hey shut up, don’t laugh, I haven’t actually seen his balls, I’m sure you know more about them than I do, Ilya. What, are you mad now? Don’t poke the bear if you don’t want it to shove your dirty laundry in your face, boy.”

“He eventually left and I did too. There was a few more customers after him, but they were are simpletons. They didn’t weird me out as much as he had. His final remark was ‘I look forward to my next reading, Cadwallader’ and it was bonkers cause that was before I gave my name to clients. Usually I’d just draw them in and then run as soon as I got their money so they couldn’t find me once they realized I was full of shit. But, Asra was different. He didn’t give me his name either, but I knew it. And that was fucking weird. I barely remember my mother’s name… Actually, I don’t remember her name, but I knew his? The fuck is up with that? But that’s how it was. It rattled me, but not enough to stop conning chumps. That was the only way I was living at that point!”

“It was about two weeks after that that I saw him again.” Wally’s voice shifted, more distant in her memories than it had been. Julian looked at her through his eyelashes, good eye finding her face blank, the magician too lost in thought to notice his staring.

“What happened then?” his voice barely broke a whisper.

“Well at first I didn’t think much of it! I’m use to seeing people dicking around in the square, it didn’t feel anything special. Until he made eye contact.” The scam artist shivered at the memory. “It was fuckin’ terrifying, Julian. Like, if I could describe to you just how close I was to shitting my pants in that moment, I would. It was like,” A pause. “if Count Lucio’s goat painting showed up and offered to give me a blowjob at 2:37 in the morning. In front of his wife. It was bananas. Well, not to say I _wouldn’t_ enjoy a blowjob at that time, but what about the repercussions? I don’t wanna get caught fucking a dead noble! Which would I get hung for: being a homewrecker or a necrophiliac? That’s just too close for comfort man, I’d rather keep the freaky shit in the privacy of my own slice of Hell, not in the common for the world to see. Having my bits out in public is something I’m willing to try once but that’s not how, I’d much pre-”

A love tap knocked Wally on the side of her cheek, stopping her in her tracks. Her mouth hung open mid sentence briefly before her tongue flicked out to wet her lips and she closed them.

“Sorry.” she looked sheepishly at the man at her side.

“Why were you scared?”

“I’ve never-” She stopped of her own volition this time, eyebrows knit together as she tried to pick her words, “I’m not- I’m not use to people seeing me like that. Like they know me. People usually just glance over me or stare because of my dashing good looks,” a smug smile crept across Wally’s lips before she could stop it, “but his stare just got me. It knew me. Honestly, the only time I’ve ever seen that look, it was followed by a curse and a fist in my direction so I booked it. I only grabbed my decks and just hauled ass down the alleys until I thought I was a good distance away.”

Laughter cut through beside her and the magician stopped, “What?” she asked.

Julian’s grin softened and he glanced back up at his living cushion, “The image of you running. As you couldn’t have ran off with your whole stand.”

“Hey, it’s a lot bulkier than you are! Do you know how hard it would be run with a table?”

He laughed harder, a tear pricking at his good eye.

Wally’s hands extended as she mimed its size, “It was this big, Julian! I can’t throw it over my shoulder like I can you! It wasn’t as noodly, the shape it was was the shape it was going to be, no bending allowed. Now I could have maybe ran with it over my head and tried to pole vault over a wall with it. Gods, that would have been fucking hilarious. Just running from the law and all of the sudden _boing!_ out of that bitch like those rubber balls kids chuck at walls to see how far it’ll bounce back. But I wouldn’t bounce back, I’d bounce _away_ into the night like a fucking lemur.” A pause. “Fuck, I did it again. You’re no help at all Julian.”

“Hey now-”

“No, this one is entirely your fault and you can’t tell me otherwise. You’re the one who interrupted. And you wanted to hear this story in the first place.”

“I’m sorry.” His tone of voice said this was only half true.

“Shit, where was I? Right!” Wally’s manicured finger went in the air as she remembered. “So I booked it, right? And I finally got far enough where I felt safe and took a breather. I’m use to running through the streets and all. With what I do, especially when people realize that I’m full of shit most of the time, they tend to want their money back. Or to leave me another gift in a black eye. Either way, they keep my calves in great shape, as you can tell-” A toned leg popped out from beneath the blanket.

“I can, they’re very nice.”

“Thank you.” Wally nodded proudly. “So I’d gotten a fair distance away. But like a weed, he just popped up outta nowhere at the end of the alleyway! I didn’t even have enough time to pull out Susan!” Her arm flung out towards the small stack of cards sitting alone on the dresser. It was a deck Julian had never seen before, different than the set Asra had used to read him in their past. There were fewer in this one, only 40 cards, and the images depicted on their faces were unlike any he’d ever encountered.

In their short time together, Julian had only asked once to get a reading from Wally.

Her response?

‘Even you don’t hate yourself enough to want that.’

“He was just on me! And I tried to be like ‘oh hello, stranger, can I help you on this fine day?’ but we both knew that was bullshit. As I sat there, waiting for the retribution that the gods had promised me ever since I used Susan to change that first legal document, I felt no fear. For it was to be, a just ass whooping. And plus, you’ve seen my biceps, I’m good. They were even more impressive 2 years ago. But he didn’t want to strangle me for telling him his dog that died seven years ago was the reason he could never find the socks he was clearly wearing that day. Nah, that was when he offered to teach me proper magic. And it was fucking wild, man!”

She looked back at Julian, eyes wide, “I know I’ve said that a lot during this tale, but that doesn’t make it any less true. I was so confused by it I was tempted to flick him in the forehead to prove he was real, and was really close to doing it too! And then Faust popped out, and she reminded me of a slightly less cool Lysander, and I was gone. My contract was binding, my shit was moved in, and that was all she wrote. My tale of ‘holy shit that story is just wild enough to get me to this wild moment in my life’ is over and now you know more bullshit about me than you probably wanted.”

Julian was quiet. “I can’t believe it.”

“It’s the truth, man.” Wally shrugged, jostling the man resting on her shoulder.

“I can’t believe you almost cursed Asra.” There was a beat and Julian started laughing, the whole bed shaking with him.

“Hey, he woulda deserved it.” The smile that found its way on Wally’s face soon broke into her own giggles. She flung her head back into the pillows and wiggled down into the mattress so she and Julian were eye level.

“You’re not wrong.” The laughter didn’t leave his voice when he replied and regarded her fondly. Julian’s light eye found hers and a sigh left his lungs.

“You’ll find I rarely am.” Wally smiled before quickly stealing a kiss from his still parted lips.

Julian blinked as an impish grin spread across Wally’s face. The slight smudge of her lipstick caught his notice when she pulled back. “What was that for?”

“You’re attractive and I have no impulse control.” She said flatly before stealing another one.

This time, Julian’s arms snaked around the small magician’s back before she could pull away, his larger frame dwarfing hers as he deepened the kiss. A giggle bubbled up Wally’s throat and she reciprocated, eager to feel more of him across her skin. A lavender clad leg lazily slid up Julian’s as she slotted herself into his empty spacing, filling her senses with nothing but his touch and taste as she claimed him with her own. Nails and teeth and soft groans filled the air the further the past got from their minds. It all fell away until the only thing left was Wally’s fingers pressed into Julian’s hips and the touch of his lips against her ribs. But it still wasn’t enough.

She wouldn’t be sated until he was a mess beneath her, drunk off her touch and begging like he did best.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Critiques are appreciated ! 
> 
> Cadwallader is one my apprentices/OCs and im fully in love with her.
> 
> find me @mvriel.tumblr.com ! I do have some rp blogs there (for lucio and my ocs) so feel free to hmu for those too ! 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this and you have a good day !


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